Educated at a Christian Brothers' school, he went on to work for Aer Lingus - a job that enabled him to travel widely.

He published Long Lankin, a collection of short stories, in 1970, while his first novel was 1971's Nightspawn. It was followed in 1976 by Dr Copernicus, the first in a series of novels exploring the lives of eminent scientists.

The Book of Evidence was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1989. While flying to London with Aer Lingus for the awards, Banville was plied with champagne by his former employer, and told the BBC at the 2005 awards he "wouldn't have been able to stand up" if he'd won the prize.

He lost out to Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day that year.

Banville was one of two Irish authors on the 2005 shortlist, along with Sebastian Barry for A Long Long Way.

Asked after he had won why the Irish make such good writers, he said: "The English did many terrible things to the Irish but one of the great things they did was give us this wonderful language. We are a completely story-based society. We do love a story."